


The Shoot

by Tarlan



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Break Up, Community: mcsheplets, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-28
Updated: 2014-09-28
Packaged: 2018-02-19 03:51:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2373443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlan/pseuds/Tarlan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The tie-breaker came down to a plant that Katie had given him years earlier.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Shoot

**Author's Note:**

> Written for **McSheplets** 185: shoot

It was tiny; just a single, delicate, bright green shoot coiling up from beneath the small amount of earth in the tiny pot that Katie gave him one day. Rodney didn't have a clue what to do with it because nature really wasn't his thing. He felt obliged to nurture it though, spending hours going through gardening and botany texts and, amazingly, the tiny shoot survived.

His relationship with Katie didn't survive and he had only himself to blame. Looking back, it was inevitable really as they were polar opposites in too many ways that counted. He was loud and she was quiet, he loved machines and she loved talking to plants. Of course, from his studies he realized that sound waves - particular frequencies - stimulated plant growth so he had set up a timer in his quarters to play certain relaxing movements for favorite classical pieces at set intervals.

His relationship with Katie had withered but that little shoot flourished.

Jennifer hated the plant. She said it was creepy because its leaves were such a dark green that they were almost black, and they reacted to touch by curling in like an old crone's arthritic, clawed hand. At certain times of the year it flowered, and the flowers were a yellow that oozed a blood red sap that had a particularly strong odor, presumably to attract certain insects. Admittedly, it wasn't a pleasant odor like lavender or the perfume of roses, but it wasn't a stench either. More like sweaty socks, fresh sweat and semen, which was admittedly a little embarrassing if he'd been off-world for a week with his quarters sealed as no one ever believed him that it was the plant - not until they got close enough to sniff.

John loved it, and there was that embarrassing incident when he caught Rodney talking to it and mocked him, though Rodney would take John's gentle ribbing over Jennifer's any day of the week. Jennifer banished the plant to the balcony but it didn't like the salty sea air of San Francisco bay, or maybe the sunlight was too strong or in the wrong spectrum for it, so Rodney brought it back inside much to her disgust.

When asked years later why he broke up with Jennifer, he would talk of different expectations, work commitments, personality quirks that neither could overlook or compromise upon. The truth was far simpler. She wanted to move into his quarters as they were better than hers but insisted the plant had to go.

Rodney always thought it would be something major that would see the end of their relationship; not a pot plant given to him by an ex-almost-fiancee.

"It wasn't a small thing, Rodney," John insisted. "It was the tip of the iceberg."

Of course John wouldn't clarify what he meant by that, leaving Rodney to figure out all the major issues lying beneath the surface. Instead it was Teyla who suggested making a pros and cons list, or a comparison table, and who better to compare Jennifer to than John, his best friend.

Music: Jennifer liked catchy dance tunes and power ballads, John liked country and western... and there was that poster of Johnny Cash right over the bed with the creepy eyes that followed him around the room. Neither music taste appealed to Rodney, who would rather listen to Mozart's piano concertos, so he put both of the names in the cons side of the list. Then he recalled the last time he had been listening to Bach's Mass in B Minor. John had arrived, settled down on the comfortable chair, leaned back and closed his eyes, letting the music wash over him. On another of the rare occasions when he settled back to listen to music, Jennifer had come in, walked straight over to the player and switched it off so they could 'talk' without so much as a 'by your leave'.

He decided to nudge John's name into the pros column after all.

Movies: Jennifer liked what John - and yes, yes - what he too called chick-flicks. Romances and romantic comedies, plus the occasional slapstick comedy from the era of The Three Stooges, probably something she and her father had shared. If he had to watch _Lost in Translation_ one more time then he would scream... like a girl, came the teasing extra in John's voice.

"I do not scream like a girl," he grumbled.

John liked the same genres as Rodney but not necessarily the same movies. After all, _Back to the Future_ had the worst science of any movie - ever. Flux capacitor... HA! But it was fun ripping movies apart with John, and TV shows, whereas Jennifer would spend the entire movie telling him to be quiet when he scoffed at some unlikely coincidence bringing the protagonists together in their romantic setting. But she did snuggle up close while they watched movies, and as long as he stayed quiet and didn't fall asleep and start snoring, she overlooked that he probably hadn't paid much attention to the actual movie.

Usually he and John sat on the bed, shoulder to shoulder, with pillows stuffed behind their backs for support and a bowl of fresh popcorn on Rodney's lap. John would grab a handful of popcorn a few times during the movie, despite saying he didn't like it that much, smirking when Rodney grumbled about him getting his own popcorn. He didn't actually mind but it was almost a routine now. Just something they did.

He wondered if John was a cuddler.

Comics: Jennifer had looked at him as if he had suddenly grown a second head when he asked her views on Batman versus Superman.

Definite strike against Jennifer.

And so it went down his list, and at the end he realized it was a tie-breaker.

Looking around the room for inspiration, his eyes fell upon the plant that he'd nurtured from a tender shoot. It wasn't pretty and it didn't smell of lilacs or roses, but he was proud of it. With a firm swipe of the pen, he put John in the pros and Jennifer in the cons. It tipped the balance in John's favor but Rodney was mature - or perhaps immature - enough to admit that 'regular sex' featured heavily in Jennifer's favor all the way through the list. 

If all things were even and he was having regular sex with John too then there'd be no comparison to make. 

Rodney shook his head, snorting softly at the likelihood of someone as hot as John being interested in a geek like him. He winced. Okay, perhaps it _was_ possible as Jennifer was hot and she'd chosen him over Ronon, and John had practically admitted after the end of DADT that he was bisexual. At the time Rodney was waist deep inside a broken piece of Ancient technology, and by the time he had extricated himself, John had left.

He looked at his list of Pros and Cons again, seeing how Jennifer shaped up against his best friend, and he groaned at the sudden realization that it would have never occurred to him to compare John to Jennifer. John was... perfect, even with all the so-called flaws listed down the page.

The following day, Rodney broke up with Jennifer, and the next time he and John were together on the pier, he casually leaned over and kissed him.

John didn't pull away.

END  
.


End file.
